[John Jarrold]

Jordan

Don't know about anyone else, but I read the opening, whether it's called 'prologue' or 'chapter 1'. But I do think that starting the book with action is often better than an information-laden build-up - the former is a hook, the latter is quite likely to get your book turned down. The phrase 'Argh, info-dump' is heard every day in SFF editors' offices...